Daily Search Forum Recap: April 29, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Maps Merging Competing Business's Local Information
I found a very disturbing Google Maps issue via Google Maps Help forums. Mike Blumenthal has uncovered that Google is merging competing businesses that have nearby addresses. Let me say that again, but show you an example, that was uncovered by Mike. Here are the results for two different hotels/motels in the same area, but that have different addresses. The map result for South Pier Inn displays the correct information, but their competitor, The Inn

Google Tests Location-Aware Toolbar
Google has posted a new beta version of the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer over here for users to test. The new version is currently a labs project only and brings location services to the toolbar. This allows Google to determine your current location, I believe based on your ISP's data, and then serve up local search results to you. It is called, "Google Toolbar with My Location." The help document describes the features: Find

Microsoft Disables Fake Referral "Feature" Temporarily
The ongoing saga of Live Search's fake referral data to possibly conduct cloaking experiments has been shut down temporarily. The official Microsoft representative has told us in a WebmasterWorld thread that it has been shut down. He said: I just spoke with the team. They said they are working on a fix for this, but the feature causing the problem is turned off currently, so you shouldn't be seeing any fake referrals from us. Exactly

Google Updates AdSense Program Policies Again: Guidelines Broaden
Yesterday, the Google AdSense blog announced a several updates to the AdSense program policies agreement. The main thing is that to comply with the AdSense terms, you need to comply with the terms of service on any of the other Google products and services. Google summed up the changes as follows: Google brand violations: This policy has always existed in our Terms and Conditions, but we've now brought it directly to the 'Ad Placement' section

Google Web Spam Team Joins Twitter
Google has secured @GoogleWebspam on Twitter. Currently the Twitter stream is empty, but the account has over 60 followers. Both Googler's JohnMu and Matt Cutts confirmed that this account is controlled by a Googler at the Web Spam team. John said this morning "@rustybrick Yes, that account is legitimate, but not active." And @Harith asked Matt Cutts yesterday, who said: @Harith, got more info. Someone on my team showed initiative and grabbed that user account,